China June 12th

I woke up to my feet on fire. the night before i left the balcony doors open late and let a bunch of mosquito's in and they had a feast. they weren't big bumps but just as itchy. i forgot to mention that the night before the sponsor from a sports company called peak sent us all a bunch of gear (travel bags, long sleeve t, polo, mesh shorts, sweat suit, and some shoes.) as grateful as we were everyone immediately thought "now we have to lug this around too!". sounds so spoiled and it is but carrying all our bags around through train stations, bus stations, and airports has defiantly wore on us. soon after i woke up we got a phone call telling us to go eat and that we were leaving at 9:30. i wasn't listening very closely so we got ready for shoot around and went and ate. when we got down there everyone was dressed casual so i asked and found out that we were going eat lunch at the sponsors somewhere downtown. i got razzed pretty good for that one and was banned from answering the phone for the rest of the day ha ha. come to find out that everyone was wrong. we were going to eat but not where we were told and not with whom we were told we were going to eat with. i was wondering why we got on the bus early. first i though we'd probably be doing a tour of something and then i though we probably have a far drive. it ended up being a combo of both. after about a hour and fifteen minute drive we show up on another enormous man made island. this island, from what i could tell, was made up of duplex condos, single family condos, and mansions, along with some community centers. our first stop was at one of the community centers. the place was littered with reporters and random other people that looked out of place. we had no clue what the point was so we just walked around and took pictures and posed for pictures. the community center was placed on the water and had a couple different buildings, a stage for concerts, a couple of covered areas, and a couple docks with boats and bicycle boats. about 20 minutes after we started they turned on this fountain about 60 feet of shore. it was no billagio but they did have one fountain in the middle that shot up close to 200 feet. it was quite the sight. it was really humid and although they made sure we had enough water we were sweating uncontrollably. after 45 minutes or so we signed some basketballs and took some pictures with a guy (I'm assuming he owned the project and then headed to the bus. we assumed we were on the way to eat but we stopped in the middle of a bunch of condos, got off the bus and headed down this driveway. halfway down the driveway we run into 3 peacocks. we got some good pictures before one kind of jumped at me with some aggression. i took that as a sign and we moved on. we crossed this little bridge and then the property opened up and this huge mansion stood there. it was surrounded by water with about 50 feet of yard separating the house and water. in the front yard there were a couple more male peacocks (the pretty ones) and females running around. the mansion was 3 stories and come to find out quickly was occupied. i guess the guy didn't mind it we toured it. the architecture reminded more of something you would find in orange country rather than china. all the inside had light colored walls and dark wooded trim everywhere. the most impressive room was the theater room on the 3rd floor. it had 10 leather lazy boy style massage chairs that even massaged your feet and head. heading back to the bus we saw one of the peacocks that had opened it's feathers up so we had to get a couple pictures of that. we loaded back on the bus and headed through the compound and then the bus came to another stop. at this point nobody wanted to move unless it was for food but we did anyway. to our surprise we made the right decision because it was for lunch. we sat around this huge round table with the lazy Susan in the middle spinning around. there was kung pao chicken, a beef and onion dish, a vegetable dish to start off. then they brought in some cold McDonald's which was really random. i think a couple people ate a little but it did taste like it had been sitting there since the night before. after the McDonald's they brought some sandwich's, fried rice, an eggplant dish, a cold vegetable plate, as well as a fruit dish. we all ate as much as we could because we knew there probably wouldn't be much before the game tonight and we needed the fuel. the drive back usually feels shorter but for some reason it didn't this time and i even slept a little. we finally got back to our hotel and was able to rest until game time. right before the game on the court the city representatives came out and spoke. they called the game we were about to play in the "sunshine island championship". they also said that this was the highest level of basketball that has ever been played in their city and hoped that it would bring international recognition to their city. we all felt honored to be there. the game was a good game. i had an up and down game. i wasn't feeling great and i had a little pull in my groin that was bugging me. our team played well together and pulled out the win. they presented us with these plaques that had a detailed Chinese tree made out of gold. it's actually really good looking. they also gave us a championship trophy.